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| Several RC magazines around the world have asked us to write a monthly column. With the kind permission we will re-publish the column at our web site too so all of the XRAY fans can read the latest news and behind the scenes information. Enjoy. |
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The summer season is over. The 2010 summer season was definitely the busiest racing season for us. Ever.
In the last couple of months we were home for only a few days. Like every sport, as a team we had some great moments and achievements but also faced some tough times; all-in-all like in everyoneâ™s life, we had our ups and downs this summer season. However, despite some bad luck and sometimes not-so-good results we never gave up and the Team continued the hard work and looked forward to the future⦠those who work hard will one day be rewarded. As such, the most positive and fascinating moment of this season was our very first World Champion title which I have shared with you in my previous column. So generally I evaluate this summer season as successful, with new experiences and knowledge learned which will help us move not only our products but also our entire company and team one more step forward. Soon the winter season will start so once again we will be back at the indoor races. Oh, and there is still the last World Championship on schedule: the 1/8 Off-road Worlds in Thailand.
Before we get completely into the indoor season I will share some last summer race moments with you. |
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| 1/10 Nitro Touring Euros: |
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The same week we returned from the 1/10 electric touring Euros in France we swapped the electric stuff in our bags for nitro stuff and flew to Sweden for the last Euros of the season â“ the 1/10 nitro touring Euros. I have raced at this track at the 1/8 On-road World Championship 16 years ago (wow, is it so long already?). My memories from that race were mostly about rain and cold, so I just hoped we would have better weather. Martin was at the warm-up race at the track in June and the weather was nice. After arriving at Gothenburg we went to track but since we were still not allowed to practice we used the time to prepare tires, engines, and cars. When we arrived the track was dry but soon it started to rain and the rain was came down the rest of the week â“ a deja vu from 16 years ago with same weather, same rain, same cold.
Early on Monday the pits got crowded with all the drivers and the racing atmosphere started to build up. Team XRAY had a challenging task to recapture the European Champion title from 2009, but with the World Champion title already claimed this season there was not so much pressure and most of the team was enjoying the relaxed mood. Of course nothing was left to chance and everyone worked hard from the first day despite the weather being against us as such. Team XRAY was well represented from all around Europe and the XRAY NT1 was the most popular car so the list of drivers would be too long to completely list. Here are just a few: Dirk Wischnewski (XRAY Germany), Alexander Hagberg (XRAY Sweden), Teemu Leino (XRAY Finland), Jerome Renaux (XRAY Belgium), Adrian Bernsten (XRAY Norway), Manuel Huber (XRAY Austria), Francesco Martini (XRAY Italy) and of course Martin Hudy (XRAY Slovakia). |
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Some of the drivers skipped the scheduled Tuesday practice and arrived on Wednesday but nobody actually had to worry about missing anything as the rain postponed all the racing. Each time the track dried out and was ready for action, the rain came down again and postponed racing again and again.
Since I was not at the previous warm-up I wanted to do as much practice as I could, but the bad weather left us no chance to do that. Even the qualifiers had no better running. After the first qualifiers it started to rain harder so the rest of the qualifiers were cancelled; only the one qualifier would determine the finals. Dirk Wischnewski was the fastest in the one & only qualifier and as such secured the TQ position. Most of the team luckily had good run as well and therefore we had plenty of cars in the upper finals. While being lucky in that respect, it was Martin who was unlucky on the other hand. His fuel tube broke in the qualifier and he didnâ™t finish the run, so that put him at the absolute back of the field. I myself was experiencing technical problems so I ended up one final ahead of Martin. We had a homework to do in the low finals.
This track has been fairly easy so good engine and clutch set-up was the key to success. After testing several engines I selected two, and with the new High Dynamic clutch with red clutch shoe from the Worlds the engine worked very well with enough power and aggression but not too much. Thanks to the good power I was able to bump-up four finals and probably could have done more until someone crashed into me which resulted in a broken tire and damaged muffler. Such is racing. |
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Martin started from the very last position and showcased some of the best action at the event as he worked his way from the very back to the top. After great racing, Martin bumped up eight times to appear in the semi-final⦠fighting for a starting position in the main final. The show did not finish for Martin and he was on rails at a bump-up pace when his engine flamed out at the opposite side of the track. That lap took him 52 seconds and he finished 4 seconds away from a bump-up position in the most unpopular 11th position.
During the 8 sub-finals, Martin ran without any technical problems and actually without even touching the car except for cleaning it. The rest of the XRAY drivers experienced no other problems. The V2 update of the spur gears and drive belts from the first NT1 have definitely helped the reliability and lifetime of the drivetrain. Actually, I have seen only Teemu to break a prototype aluminum CVD drive shaft in a final after having run it during practice, qualifier and lower finals without any problems. |
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| With many NT1 cars in quarter- and semi-finals, we had some great chances but still as you know in a race anything and everything can happen even in the last seconds. Jerome Renaux collected another bad luck after he run out of fuel in the last lap and his chances ended in that quarter final. I felt sorry for Jerome as he has been consistently fast but constantly having bad luck, so hopefully his day will come in near future. Adrian Bernsten was also on an easy bump-up pace until engine problems put him out of the race. Despite several drivers ending their chances in lower finals, we still managed to get six cars in the main final: Dirk, Manuel Huber, Teemu, Frank Andersen, Kandelhart, and Alex. |
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| In the main final, Dirk went into the front of the field after the start but since his tire strategy was to run larger tires and avoid tire changing he was a bit slower at the beginning and held himself at 2nd place. After the tires started to wear he kept getting faster all the time and eventually he got into the lead despite taking extra safe refueling. Dirk was unlucky at the World Championship and this time collected another stroke of bad luck when a glow plug broke and he dropped to 4th place. Manuel was also very fast but his engine problems did not allow him to battle for podium places. Kandelhart (aka Kandi) was doing very well but at the end was disqualified for his rear tire being wider than the rules allowed. Again, such is racing but it made me remember when Jerome Renaux directly qualified into main final at the World Championship but was disqualified for being 5g too light. Rules are rules. |
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At the end it was Alex â“ the only XRAY driver â“ who managed to make it to the podium but with some thrilling moments as well. Just before refueling he ran out of fuel and additionally was given a stop-and-go penalty after his mechanic was on the track to capture Alexâ™s car. Unfortunately the gap to the leader was quite significant, but towards the end of the race he was getting closer and closer but time ran out and Alex found himself in 2nd place and as at the last European Championship he claimed the Vice-champion title.
After the rainy week we could finally enjoy the final day without rain and it was nice to watch the finals which was a race between drivers and cars instead of a race of attrition to see who would survive with water in the electronics. Despite not regaining our European Champion title from last year, we still hold the Vice-champion title and I was leaving Sweden fairly satisfied. Team XRAY was the strongest and fairly successful team, the NT1 worked very well, and I was happy with everything. The summer season is over and I am all satisfied, but there is still a long list of things to do waiting on us. So⦠back from the races and straight to work again! |
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| While the summer season ended in Europe, we have closely watched the Outdoor USA Touring Car Championship in the electric touring category. Team XRAY USA was well represented at the race, setting 2x TQ and in the finals Paul Lemieux won the Modified category and Mark Burt won the Expert 17.5 category. These two USA national titles add to the already extensive list of the US victories, making it today a total of an impressive 30x USA National titles which I believe makes Team XRAY USA the most successful team. Congratulations to all Team XRAY USA drivers! |
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See you around the tracks. Enjoy the ride and â til next time.
Dipl. Eng. Juraj Hudy
XRAY Chief Designer |
| Archive: |
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Column #1 - Behind the Scene Stories
Column #2 - Worlds Flashback
Column #3 - T2'007 Debut
Column #4 - Designing the T2'007
Column #5 - Worldcup Review and NT1 Testing
Column #6 - Developing and Designing the NT1
Column #7 - Developing and Designing the NT1 - Part 2
Column #8 - Back to the Races
Column #9 - XT8 Truggy Development
Column #10 - Touring Car Development
Column #11 - Bling-bling Mentality
Column #12 - Hot Summer Washout
Column #13 - New Electric Touring Car
Column #14 - Off-road Development
Column #15 - My micro love
Column #16 - Back in the Dirt
Column #17 - Worlds Preparations
Column #18 - 808 Tests & Stress
Column #19 - Excited for the Worlds?
Column #20 - Statistics, Expenses Sheets, Production Analysis, Calculationsâ¦
Column #21 + Column #22 - Euros + Euros + Worlds
Column #23 - The Busiest Season Ever
Column #24 - In Between the Worlds
Column #25 + Column #26 - Well Developed or Overdeveloped?
Column #27 - Back to The Future
Column #28 - 2009 Kick-off
Column #29 - Crazy what?
Column #30 - Last indoor race of the season
Column #31 - Getting into summer season
Column #32 - Heading for the Euros
Column #33 - Testing - Always last minute, always new ideas
Column #34 - European Champion - title celebration
Column #35 - Time to move on
Column #36 - National Heroes
Column #37 - 2010 ready
Column #38 - Decade of Triumph
Column #39 - 2010 Racing Calendar
Column #40 - DHI, ETS & NĂĽrnberg Show
Column #41 - World Championship Practice
Column #42 - EC indoor, EC 1/12, Silverstate, LRP Masters, Neo
Column #43 - Nationals All Around
Column #44 - Warm Warm-ups, Challenging Challenges
Column #45 - Electric Touring Worlds 2010
Column #46 - Team XRAY - World Champion!!! |
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